The World and Everything in It: May 10, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. Hi, I'm Grayson Butterworth and I'm a sixth grader at West End Christian school in Hopewell, Virginia. I listen to World every day with my dad and my favorite segment is movie reviews with Collin Garborino. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! Today on Culture Friday, the Boy Scouts erase “Boys.” And Colorado lets you pick any name you want and requires teachers to use it under penalty of law.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll talk it over with John Stonestreet in just a few minutes.

Also today—

PROXIMUS CAESAR: Apes! Together! Strong!

—the fourth installment in a reboot of The Planet of the Apes franchise. WORLD Arts and Culture Editor Collin Garbarino says this one raises some big questions.

And later: What Shakespeare contributed to our daily conversation on this month’s Word Play.

BROWN: It’s Friday, May 10th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning

BROWN: Up next, Mark Mellinger with today’s news.

AUDIO: [NETANYAHU]

MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: Netanyahu: Go it alone » Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails.”

He made that statement Thursday in response to the Biden Administration’s refusal to provide weapons for a ground offensive against Hamas in the town of Rafah.

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby warns…

KIRBY: Any kind of major Rafah ground operation, would actually strengthen Hamas’s hand at the negotiating table, not Israel’s.

The White House opposes a ground invasion because of the potential for mass civilian casualties in the heavily-populated area.

But Israel and its supporters say it has to invade Rafah to wipe out Hamas’ last remaining stronghold.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton:

COTTON: Hamas wins if it survives in Rafah, and Joe Biden has threatened to withhold weapons from Israel for fighting in Rafah. Therefore, Joe Biden objectively favors a Hamas victory over Israel.

Israel’s top military spokesman yesterday downplayed the practical impact of any weapons hold-up, saying Israeli forces have what they need.

Biden asylum changes » After months of intense political pressure, the Biden Administration announced Thursday that it’s pushing to deport ineligible asylum seekers faster.

Under a proposed change, immigration officials would determine a migrant’s eligibility for asylum during initial screenings.

Right now, that happens later, in the interview stage, meaning it can take months or years to identify or remove illegal border-crossers who are public safety risks.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says any action at the border is welcome.

MCCONNELL: I'm not an adviser to the president, but if I were, I'd say you ought to do something about this to the maximum extent of your ability.

But this isn’t the major immigration policy overhaul lawmakers in both parties say the country needs.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy:

MURPHY: The border is still a top issue to Americans, whether you live on the border or in the northeast or in the mountain west, and so we are committed to fixing this problem.

The proposed rule change still has to go through a 30-day public comment period before it can take effect.

Jose Ibarra indicted » The Venezuelan immigrant charged with killing 22-year-old Laken Riley is facing nearly a dozen charges after a grand jury indictment. WORLD’s Paul Butler reports.

PAUL BUTLER: 26-year-old Jose Ibarra now faces 10 charges relating to Riley’s death, including murder and aggravated assault with the intent to rape.

Prosecutors also added a Peeping Tom charge along with evidence tampering and hindering a 911 call.

Ibarra has been the prime suspect in Riley’s murder soon after her body was found near the University of Georgia Athens campus in February.

The indictment also sheds light on Riley’s manner of death, alleging the illegal immigrant choked her and smashed her head in with a rock.

The murder sparked outrage among conservative politicians who have continually advocated for tighter border security under the Biden administration.

For WORLD, I’m Paul Butler.

Trump trial » For the second time this week, the judge in Donald Trump’s criminal trial has denied a request for a mistrial.

Trump’s legal team claimed parts of key witness Stormy Daniels’ testimony were potentially prejudicial, shouldn’t have been allowed, and differed from what she’s said in the past.

But Judge Juan Merchan says Trump’s lawyers had ample opportunities to object when she was on the stand and didn’t.

Afterward, the former president was outraged.

TRUMP: This judge, what he did and what his ruling was, is a disgrace. Everybody saw what happened today. He’s a corrupt judge and he’s totally conflicted.

Trump added the trial shouldn’t even be happening, and says he should be hitting the campaign trail instead.

Missouri governor kicks Planned Parenthood off Medicaid » Missouri’s governor has signed a law cutting off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. WORLD’s Travis Kircher has more.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: The law, signed by Republican Governor Mike Parson Thursday, blocks any state Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood.

Missouri offers robust protections for the unborn… and Planned Parenthood has already stopped providing abortions in the state.

But supporters of the new law say it will prevent the organization from potentially using Medicaid funding it would have gotten from Missouri… to help support its abortion business in other states.

The law faces an uncertain future…as the state’s supreme court has ruled previous attempts to block Medicaid funding to be unconstitutional.

For WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher.

Louisiana says no to rape, incest exceptions » Lawmakers in Louisiana have rejected a bill that would have removed protections for babies conceived through rape or incest.

Earlier this week, a GOP controlled legislative committee heard emotional testimony from both sides of the issue.

One woman said she was raped when she was 17. She said if she didn’t have access to contraception…

SUMMERLAND: I would have had an abortion. I would have needed an abortion. And I would not have thought of it as potentially ending a life. I would have been saving one. I would have been saving my life.

But speaking on behalf of the unborn, one man told the committee he was conceived out of gang rape. And that he’s forever grateful to his mother for choosing life.

BERTRAND: I don’t think I’m a son of a rapist. I’m a son of a southern woman who said yes in the face of a tragedy, and a grievous injustice to her. I’m just here to share light with y’all guys that my life has value beyond the way I was conceived.

State lawmakers voted seven-to-four to keep the protections for the unborn in place.

I’m Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, Word Play with George Grant.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Friday the 10th of May, 2024. Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

It’s time for Culture Friday, and joining us now is John Stonestreet. He’s president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast.

Hey, John, glad you’re back!

JOHN STONESTREET: Thanks. Good morning, both of you.

EICHER: John, I want to rewind about six years when the Boy Scouts of America rebranded the “Boy Scouts” program, as distinct from the “Cub Scouts” program, “Scouts BSA.” And it was clearly all related to the cultural and corporate pressures that had buffeted the organization. I asked you then for your reaction to the end of this chapter. Here’s what you said, back in May of 2018.

STONESTREET: There’s not a more important mediating institution in American history, maybe, than the Boy Scouts. Now, if there were other mediating institutions that were forming boys into young men as opposed to forming boys into perpetual adolescents, then this loss wouldn’t be that big of a loss. But we don’t have that many. I mean, the home is failing young men, by and large in many ways the church fails young men. There’s just — there’s not another mediating institution that exists. And so that’s why I think this is a really big deal. It’s a loss for America.

Well, now the entire organization is rebranding. Boy Scouts of America is now “Scouting America,” the change announced this week to take effect next February. Boys are completely erased. And I’d like for you to pick up on that term you used, “mediating institution”—the presence of which Alexis de Tocqueville described as one the distinguishing features of the U.S. versus the rest of the world. And it looks like that mediating institution is now, just, done.

STONESTREET: Well, I think they've been done for a long time, numbers-wise and influence-wise. And there's so many things that are about this story. I mean, it's just one thing after another. So now we have a situation in which the Girl Scouts allow boys, and the Boy Scouts don't want to call themselves boys. It's just something you couldn't make up, and you couldn't have made up, you know, for example, when I was a kid, and the Boy Scouts still had an enormous following, a lot of people involved in scouting, and so on.

I think a key thing here to point out is this point of mediating institutions. That's a phrase really, that owes itself to a lot of conservative thinkers. I think probably first and foremost, Edmund Burke, but Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about America, he didn't specifically mention the Boy Scouts. What he talked about was the middle. And what he meant there was that a distinctive of America and of course, at the time he's writing in what many people would call its adolescent era, was that in between the state and the citizen, there was a lot of buffer. And America was thick in the middle. What was meant by that is that there were family and that there was local government. And then there were these voluntary associations and independent organizations. And what that did is it really protected the citizen from an overreaching state. And it helped the state from being overreaching, because these institutions helped form the virtue and character of the citizen, so that they were easy to govern and a big state was unnecessary.

And this is a distinctive of the way the American culture was functioning back then, and really has for most of its history. So here we have a situation in the American context, where perhaps the most effective organization in forming men—other than the family itself—decided a while back, that there was no such thing as boys. Or that there was no such thing that should be recognized as boys, much less men. And this is happening at the same time that more and more young people, specifically young men, are growing up either isolated from their fathers, or fatherless altogether. This is a recipe for disaster. This is an incredible, incalculable loss. And it doesn't help that the Boy Scouts now become Scouting America. You don't want an organization to deny reality.

Now, praise God for Trail Life USA. This is a wonderful example of Christians stepping up, and, and that group has grown dramatically. And you know what it's trying to do? Exactly what the Boy Scouts originally did, only with even more, I think of a faith foundation, although the original Boy Scouts were really strong on the faith component. But this is a huge loss. And, you know, this is just the latest chapter of it. And, you know, eventually it'll, it'll disappear. I mean, look, for all practical purposes, it's irrelevant in terms of what it actually offers American culture. I'm sure there's some individual troops doing, you know, with leaders that are doing good things. But for the rest of us that live in a society that is not doing the bare minimum, and equipping and cultivating young men to be young men, this is an incredible opportunity for the church to do this, and certainly a requirement for dads.

BROWN: John, let’s head over to your state and talk about a new law in Colorado that makes it clear. If a child wants to use a preferred name, public and charter school teachers have to abide. It’s the law. And if you don’t comply, it’s called discrimination. Doesn’t this essentially turn teachers into liars?

STONESTREET: Well, that's exactly right. I mean, first, you're telling students that it's okay to lie about who they are, even if they, you know, are honestly deceived, it's still saying something that's not true about themselves. And then you're not only allowing teachers to do it, you're mandating that teachers do it, and you're mandating that teachers do it specifically to the parents.

So there's so many things wrong with this bill in Colorado, which is now, again, a law, it's just hard to know where to begin. But I mean, that's as good a place as any. You're telling students it's okay to not tell the truth about who they are. You're teaching them that their nature, their ascent, their essence, their ontological identity is up for grabs, and that who they are, is not reality, like gravity. It's a social construct, like a speed limit, and that can constantly be changed. And that's not true. That's, that in and of itself is a is a falsity about what it means to be human. But then to mandate that teachers tell these lies, and to tell these lies to parents means then in a new way, the state is inserting itself in the relationship between parents and kids. And that's a damnable thing. That's the thing that will have such long-reaching consequences.

And every time we've seen the state interfere, and listen, when a state, when the state has to step in between parents and children, it needs to be because something has gone dramatically wrong, and there needs to be a rescue. This is not what is happening here, in this case. 

But there's another aspect of this one. And I just want everyone to kind of put this, this math problem here together. The second part of this law is that if a teacher fails to comply, and by the way, it's not only using preferred pronouns of a kid, it's using whatever preferred name, so they could say, you know, the, he could say, I'm a "she" on Monday, a cat on Tuesday, an appliance on Wednesday, and Xur on Thursday, and the teacher has to balance according to that dizzying, you know, journey. And if they don't, and Myrna this is key, it is the same as a teacher referring to a minority as a slur, as a racial slur. Think about that.

Calling this discrimination on the level of racial discrimination means if a kid shows up and says, "I'm a furry," and the teacher says, "No, I'm gonna call you Ted, or whatever your name is," then it's the same according to the law, as if if that young man was an African American, and the teacher referred to him in that that terrible racial slang that has been used historically. Can you imagine that, that equivocation? Not only are you telling teachers to lie to parents, about kids and to kids about themselves, if they don't lie, you're basically calling them a bigot along the lines of the worst category of bigots in history.

BROWN: That is mind blowing! And here’s what makes it especially unbelievable: this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It’s fresh on my mind, John, because I got to write a cover story on the subject for an upcoming edition of WORLD Magazine.

Who would have thought six decades later we would be having a discussion about people actually equating the use of the N-word to refusing to call someone by their preferred name?! It doesn’t make any sense!

STONESTREET: Well, you're right, it doesn't make any sense. But maybe part of it is, is that this is just the latest chapter in a whole history in which members of the LGBTQ movement, particularly the activists, have hijacked the legacy of Civil Rights. It happens over and over and over in all kinds of ways. It's never made sense. It's never been the same. It's never been equatable. And yet, it always has been. This past week in WORLD Magazine, the cover story written by Rosaria Butterfield told a little bit of that story.

And, you know, Sean McDowell and I wrote about same-sex marriage back in 2013, and looked specifically at this book After the Ball, which laid out that game plan, which there needed to be a portrayal of anything that was against homosexuality, as a along the lines of the worst bigotry in history. And you had to rewrite history to create heroes out of, you know, made up sexual categories. And that's been the plan. And of course, I was told at the time, and I'm sure Rosaria's received these emails too, that when nobody knows about After the Ball, nobody knows about that. It's not really that important. Well, call it what you want. As a former lesbian activist, she said it was important. And not only that, but whether, whether they got the game plan from that book or somewhere else, it's the same game plan. And then it continues, but it's never been to this degree, Myrna, to your point, it's never been to this degree, where to refuse to refer to someone as something that they are not, that you've actually basically called them these awful names. It's just astonishing. But as soon as I think that the Colorado State legislature, or Civil Rights Commission, or governor, or the Denver Post can't surprise me anymore, man they outdo themselves, I say, as a resident of Colorado.

EICHER: John Stonestreet is president of the Colson Center and host of the Breakpoint podcast. Thanks so much, John.

STONESTREET: Thank you both.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, May 10th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: we take a look at the beginning of the blockbusters.

EICHER: Last weekend, The Fall Guy kicked off the summer movie season. But for all the good reviews, the rom-com action film starring Ryan Gosling as a stuntman didn’t do well. Hollywood had its worst summer-season opening week since 1995, and The Fall Guy really was the fall guy.

BROWN: This weekend, theater owners are pinning their hopes on one of Hollywood’s oldest franchises. But will nostalgia bring moviegoers back? Here’s arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

AUDIO: [Ape hooting]

COLLIN GARBARINO: It’s time once again to visit a world where apes and humans struggle with each other to see who will rule supreme. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the tenth movie in the Planet of the Apes franchise and the fourth movie in the reboot that began in 2011. But don’t worry if you’re not up to speed on all your ape lore. This newest film is sort of a soft reset that doesn’t require much background knowledge.

RAKA: What did I miss?

NOA: She spoke. She called my name.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place hundreds of years after the trilogy of movies that began with Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Those movies told the story of how a man-made virus killed off most of the world’s humans and how the survivors began losing the ability to speak. The virus also greatly increased the intelligence of the world’s ape population. A chimpanzee named Caesar organized the apes and gave them the foundations of their society.

The hero of this new installment is a young chimpanzee named Noa, played by Owen Teague. His clan lives secluded from the rest of the world—afraid to cross the borders of their land.

But the wickedness of the world comes to Noa’s home, and the young Noa, along with an older Orangutan, sets off on a quest to alleviate a great injustice. Along the way, they pick up a stray human they call “Nova.”

NOA: You said this Nova was smarter than most.

RAKA: Within reason.

But this “Nova,” played by Freya Allan, surprises the apes when she reveals that unlike most other humans, she’s not a dumb animal.

MAE: I have a name. Mae.

The plot of the movie revolves around the franchise’s familiar question of whether apes and humans can trust each other. And that trust doesn’t come cheap in this film.

MAE: I know where they’re taking your clan.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and a few instances of bad language played for laughs. The movie’s story arc follows a familiar pattern for the franchise, but the film has some nice things going for it. The visuals are beautiful and the main characters have a lot of depth.

Also, setting the action hundreds of years after the events of Caesar’s trilogy opens up interesting themes in the narrative. The memory of Caesar’s deeds has started to fade. He’s become a figure of myth, and his legacy is up for grabs. On the one hand, some caretakers of Caesar’s teaching claim the ape founder espoused decency, morality, and compassion.

RAKA: They get cold. Show mercy.

On the other hand, a new ape king calling himself Proximus Caesar champions strength and ape solidarity, claiming the original Caesar wanted to eradicate humans. He plans to build a kingdom of ape slaves for his own power and glory.

PROXIMUS CAESAR: What a wonderful day.

CROWD OF APES: What a wonderful day.

PROXIMUS CAESAR: Are we grateful for the work of Caesar?

CROWD OF APES: We are grateful.

There’s sort of a religious duality between the true followers of Caesar and the villainous Proximus Caesar. In fact, Proximus isn’t merely a villain. He’s more like an anti-Christ figure. He stands in the place of the ape’s venerated hero, pretending to be Caesar. He parrots Caesar's teachings, but he twists them, hoping to give himself unassailable power.

PROXIMUS CAESAR: Say his words.

CROWD OF APES: Apes together strong.

PROXIMUS CAESAR: Say his words!

CROWD OF APES: Apes together strong!

PROXIMUS CAESAR: What a wonderful day!

There’s a lot to chew on in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. It asks whether we can trust those who aren’t like ourselves? And how should we respond when we realize others don’t trust us? It asks us to ponder whether truth and knowledge are merely commodities to be hoarded for the advantage of ourselves and our in-group. Or do they belong to everyone equally? We see the effects of tyranny, and we see the differing responses to that tyranny.

These characters are wrestling with difficult problems in a harsh world. And one of the best things about Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is that the filmmakers resisted the temptation to wrap everything up with a neat and tidy bow. The movie has a definite conclusion, but there’s an intriguing tension that persists after the credits start rolling. That tension will undoubtedly lead to a sequel, which I hope turns out as thought-provoking as this one.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, May 10th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next, WORLD commentator George Grant with Word Play for May.

GEORGE GRANT: You may not realize it but there is a very good chance that you often use words and phrases invented by William Shakespeare. Even if you’ve never read a page of his Sonnets or seen a theatrical performance of one of his plays, he has likely left an indelible mark on your vocabulary. Writing more than 400 years ago, Shakespeare played a significant role in the formation of modern English. Scholars have identified more than 1700 words minted and first deployed by the Bard. They range from the erudite and poetic to the utilitarian and banal. At least 400 have become a part of our common parlance, from “addiction,” “bedroom,” “cheap,” and “dewdrop,” to “vulnerable,” “watchdog,” “yelp,” and “zany.”

But where Shakespeare’s mastery of language is perhaps most evident is in his clever creation of memorable catchphrases, epigrams, and maxims. His witticisms, saws, and aphorisms now pepper our conversations as useful cliches.

In his play Macbeth he gave us, “the be-all and the end-all”: “milk of human kindness,” “one fell swoop,” “what’s done is done,” “something wicked this way comes,” and “Knock knock! Who’s there?” From Hamlet we get, “brevity is the soul of wit,” “neither a borrower nor a lender be,” “hoist by his own petard,” “to thine own self be true,” “the clothes make the man,” and “my own flesh and blood.” From The Taming of the Shrew we get, “break the ice,” “cold comfort,” “all of a sudden,” “a killing kindness,” and “refuse to budge an inch.”

Othello gave us, “jealousy is a green-eyed monster,” “vanish into thin air,” and “wear my heart upon my sleeve.” From The Merry Wives of Windsor we get, “the world is my oyster,” “he’s a laughingstock,” and “as good luck would have it.” Henry VI gave us, “mum’s the word,” “faint hearted,” and “dead as a doornail,” while The Tempest gave us “brave new world” and “melted into thin air.” Not surprisingly, Romeo and Juliet gave us “wild-goose chase” and “star-crossed lovers.”

Guy Williams, a columnist for the Omaha World Herald, once related that he gave a volume of Shakespeare’s plays to an acquaintance. After perusing the book she complained, “I can’t understand why anyone makes such a fuss over that man. All he’s done is string together a whole lot of very old, well-known cliches.” Indeed, he did.

I’m George Grant.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, now it’s time to thank the team who helped to put the program together this week:

Jenny Rough, David Bahnsen, Anna Johansen Brown, Carolina Lumetta, Emily Whitten, Brad Littlejohn, Mary Muncy, Elizabeth Russell, Cal Thomas, John Stonestreet, Collin Garbarino, and George Grant.

Special thanks to our breaking news team: Lynde Langdon, Steve Kloosterman, Kent Covington, Mark Mellinger, Travis Kircher, Lauren Canterberry, Christina Grube, and Josh Schumacher.

And the guys who stay up late to get the program to you early: Johnny Franklin and Carl Peetz.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Our producer is Harrison Watters.

Our Senior producer is Kristen Flavin, and Paul Butler is Executive producer.

Additional production assistance from Benj Eicher, Leo Briceno, and Bekah McCallum.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Psalmist writes, “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!” —Psalm 119, verses one, two and three.

Seek the Lord with your whole heart as you worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, in church this weekend. And Lord willing, we’ll meet you right back here on Monday.

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.